


One Minute Before Midnight

by extremelyperturbed



Series: Darkness [2]
Category: Hannibal (TV), Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Cannibalism, Drama, Gore, Horror, M/M, Original Character Death(s), ravenstag!Will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-11
Updated: 2013-08-11
Packaged: 2017-12-23 03:08:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/921290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extremelyperturbed/pseuds/extremelyperturbed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This takes place after the fic Hunters in the Dark and is in the same universe, which fused Supernatural and Hannibal.  More of a set-up for any potential sequel than a sequel per se.    </p><p>Hannibal takes Will to a safe house but a hunter finds them anyway.  </p><p>Sorry, no Dean or Beverly in this section.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Minute Before Midnight

“I look like a nightmare version of Mr. Tumnus,” sighed Will as he looked at himself in the bedroom mirror, referring to the faun in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Ever since that night, he had been unable to change back into his human form but could only transform into either a ravenstag form or that of an elk.

Will had expected that being on the run would mean sleeping in the car and maybe risking a night or two in a motel. He hadn’t expected that Hannibal would drive him to an isolated cottage that was cozy because of solar panels installed on the roof. Inside was a kitchen, a dining room, a bathroom and a single bedroom with a single bed. 

“You’ve undergone a great change,” said Hannibal, who sat next to him on the bed. “Your system needs time to settle.” Hannibal was in human form because he knew that was the form Will was the most comfortable with and he knew that comfort was what Will needed most.

“How long?”

“I’d say a week or two.” 

“And why is it that I just have these little bumps on my head instead of . . .” Will made a gesture above his head to reference the long antlers Hannibal had in his true form 

“They take time to grow. You have just turned into a ravenstag. It’s also a sign of status.”

“Status?”

“If one has a crown of antlers like mine then that means that one should be accorded respect as someone who has lived a long time,” said Hannibal. That was true but he decided not to mention that once a ravenstag had grown a crown the same size as his, no other ravenstag in the vicinity could grow their horns beyond what they already had until the owner of the crown either left the area or was killed, often in a territorial dispute. Hannibal put his hand on Will’s head and circled one of the bumps with his thumb lazily in a counter clockwise direction. He had no plans for Will to ever grow them beyond their current size.

Will shivered briefly at the sort of things that caress did to him. “Please stop.”

“I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable,” said Hannibal. He withdrew his hand. There would be time enough for that later. 

“What is a ravenstag? And what is a long time?”

Hannibal was quiet for a while, trying to figure out a description that was both truthful yet not completely upsetting. “We are hunters. We have existed at least as long as the current incarnation of man, Homo Sapiens Sapiens. A ravenstag can live for centuries, even millenia though most die within a century due to misadventure, fighting and being hunted by humans.”

“What is it that you plan to do with me now?”

“I want to show you your true nature and to enjoy your company.” 

“I suppose that you wish that someone else had turned out to be a ravenstag. I can‘t have been your first choice.”

Hannibal frowned. “That is a very silly thing to say. There may be people I find interesting or amusing but the second I met you and knew you were a ravenstag, nobody else was a priority.” He gently took Will’s chin and turned it towards him and gave him a kiss that Will momentarily accepted then turned away from. “Tomorrow, I’ll make breakfast and we can talk more about what it means to be a ravenstag.”

“Where do I sleep?”

“There’s room enough in the bed for both of us.”

“I . . .”

“I have no plans on forcing myself on you,” said Hannibal. “Besides the fact it’s not my taste, I am too tired. And I’d rather have you in the mood to listen to what I have to say tomorrow morning.”

***

The cottage had been stocked with emergency food supplies like evaporated milk, coconut milk, oil, rice, flour, sugar, salt, spices and cooking wines. There was also dry pasta, medicinal herbs and home-canned fruits and pickled vegetables in jars. In the freezer, there was butter and shortening. Hannibal did feel a little irritation at the temporary lack of fresh meat, eggs and bread but knew he could fix that soon. 

Taking what he had at hand, he made rice porridge and complimented it with small side dishes of pickled vegetables to eat with the bland comfort dish. As dessert, he opened a jar of canned peaches, sliced them and put them on their plates. He heard the bedroom door open and saw Will look out. “I trust you slept well.”

“As well as can be expected.“ Will came out wearing one of Hannibal’s shirts. Hannibal smiled at how incongruous it was for him to wear it in his current form. The only clothes they had was what Hannibal had in the suitcase he packed for emergencies that he had in the trunk of his car. 

“Not up to my usual standards but this should prove edible,” said Hannibal. “I chose a dish that’s easy to digest and not too challenging. You‘ve had a hard week and I know you‘re still tired.” 

Will sat down, took a spoon and tasted the porridge and found it hot and soft and found that eating it with the pickles added much needed flavor. After he finished a bowl, he ate the peaches, which were soft, sweet and juicy. 

“I don’t even know what to ask,” said Will. “And even if I did ask, I wouldn’t know if you were being honest with me.”

“I have to hide myself from humans. I no longer have to hide myself from you.”

“The way you talk, it seems like I’m the only other ravenstag you know. What happened to the rest?”

“There are probably more in Europe but we are a rarity in the New World. Most ravenstags are deeply tied to territory and only move if driven away. Moving across an ocean to a brand new territory is something that only the very desperate or the extremely adventurous do. I have gone to Europe a few times over the past century but it appears that they have gone underground.“

“You don’t have family?“

“Over a thousand years ago, I was born to my father and mother. Four years later, my sister was born.”

“You’re saying that you were born during the Middle Ages?” said Will.

“Yes.”

“Did you pretend to be human back then?”

“No, we did shift on the occasion we talked to the villagers but in general we lived as our true selves in the woods.

Hannibal continued. “For generations, my family and the local people had an arrangement. The villages in our territory were under our protection. We destroyed any monsters that preyed on them like vampires, werewolves, manticores, and monstrous man-eating bears. When one of the villagers committed a serious crime, he was marked with an ’X’ on his forehead then sent out of the village at sunset. If he could get out of our territory before we found him then he would be free. However, nobody ever managed to escape.”

“What happened?” said Will.

“Missionaries came to our villages, preaching that we were actually demons and pagan gods that should be destroyed. They claimed that they could easily drive away monsters and free them from us. They armed the villagers and tricked my parents into a meeting in human form. My sister and I were left at home but we smelled the flesh of our parents burning. We ran for our lives in the forest. I was the only survivor.” Hannibal’s voice dripped with bitterness. 

“How old were you?”

“I was eight.”

Will gasped. “How did you survive?”

“I was little more than a wild animal. I’d pretend to be a little human boy during the day and shifted at night to go hunting. The only thing I knew was that I had an uncle and that he lived where France is now. It was a long, long journey.

“When I got there, he was not living as a ravenstag but as a healer living with a human wife. As they had no children, it did not take much convincing for him to talk her into accepting his nephew into the family. I asked him why he lived this way. He said that he too had been chased out of his territory. He told me that it was no longer our time but that the time of the humans was on the ascent. He taught me how to make medicine and treat illness. I did not want to learn the skill since I had no desire to make people better at the time but he told me that I would never go hungry as long as I knew how. So I learned and lived.” Hannibal stood up. 

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going out to get dinner,” Hannibal. “The area is full of deer, ducks and other game.”

“You’re not afraid that I’ll . . .”

“In your current form, no. The cottage is very isolated. Even if you did come across some hunters, you‘re likely to be shot and put into a cage and examined by doctors and biologists. I‘d also consider that you broke your promise in regards to Beverly and I don‘t like it when people break their promise to me.” Hannibal smiled. “I’ll be back soon.”

***

When Hannibal came back with a duck, he plucked, gutted and drained the beast of blood while mentally going through a list of duck-related recipes. Duck noodle soup, he thought, and roast duck breast with a variety of dipping sauces. 

“Can I help?” said Will.

“Hmm?” said Hannibal as he looked at Will standing self-consciously. “You could set the table.”

Will did so then watched as Hannibal prepared the duck for roasting. 

Hannibal said, “Today, I’m making roast duck. What is left of the duck will then be used for duck noodle soup tomorrow.”

“Where did you learn to cook?”

“Since I didn’t have a territory, I traveled around Europe and Asia, experiencing various different cuisines. As for formal training, I’d have to say that I learned much of that working in various restaurants in France. But the truth is that you can only learn so much if you don’t‘ have the knack. You really need to depend on your senses.

Hannibal continued. “The first step in learning is watching. Once you have watched then you can help next time.” 

“Is this going to be where we’ll be staying permanently?”

The question took Hannibal by surprise. “I can see why this would have some appeal as a home, Will. But this is merely one of a few safe houses I have. I prefer cities. I like various aspects of civilization even though it forces me to continually adapt. It doesn’t mean that we can’t stay in a place like this from time to time, though.” He smiled a little at Will’s use of the word ‘we.’ 

***  
As they ate slices of medium-rare roast duck breast with a port and cherry sauce, a rice pilaf with wild mushrooms and a light salad, Hannibal said, “Once we establish a home, what would you like? I know that you like fishing so I can make sure we’re not too far from a lake or a river. I can get a boat, fishing rods . . .”

“I miss my dogs,” said Will. He missed having the uncomplicated affection they offered. They had been one of the few things in his life that had been stable and now he didn't even have one for company. 

Hannibal put a slice of roast duck into his mouth and chewed it thoughtfully. “It’s not out of the question.” A well-trained guard dog would actually be a plus, he thought. He remembered with amusement what poor guard dogs Will’s dogs had been but then Will had been training them to be companions, not protectors.

“I wonder what’s happened to them,” said Will. 

“I’m sure that they’ve been taken in. They were handsome animals, well-behaved and in good condition.” Hannibal hoped that Will’s friends had adopted the dogs so that there would be one less thing for Will to feel guilty about. It would be one less thing tying him to his previous life. 

***  
Hannibal smiled as he saw the nests on the ground. It had taken a few days of intensive searching but he finally found some eggs. He would have to tweak the recipes slightly since they weren’t chicken eggs but now he could make cakes, omelets and brioche. 

It was then that he heard two faint gunshots in the distance. They sounded like they came from . . . Hannibal thought. He ran back towards the cottage. As he got closer, he could smell the scent of blood and gunpowder and saw that the front door had been kicked open. He ran in and saw Will with a shotgun wound to the abdomen and a dead stranger who had his left leg nearly severed from his body from a direct shotgun blast to his thigh. He knelt down next to Will and shook his shoulder. “Will?”

Will opened his eyes with great effort. “I was just coming out of the bathroom when he kicked the door open and shot me. He was about to shoot me again when I grabbed it out of his hands and . . .”

“It’s going to be all right . . .”

Will closed his eyes. “You should just go and leave me behind . . .”

“Shh. I’ve got my medical bag in the trunk of the car. It’s got surgical tools, local anesthesia and thread.”

Hannibal went out and brought in the medical bag. He injected local anesthesia into the area around the wound even though he knew it required more. “Does that feel any better?” 

“Not much.”

Hannibal took a look at the shotgun pellets imbedded in Will’s flesh and realized that they were silver and smelled the poison coating them. There are too many to take out but they have to all come out, he thought. Surgery with his limited equipment wouldn’t do. He took off what remained of the shirt, now little more than a bloody rag, Will was wearing. 

Hannibal dragged the intruder’s body into the kitchen. After he filled the soup pot with water and put it on the range to boil, he flipped through his rolodex and found a recipe that he used for emergencies. He quickly threw in various medicinal herbs into the water and looked at the man he had dragged into the kitchen. He quickly stripped off the man’s clothes, pulled out a butcher knife from the drawer and cut off his feet. He washed, skinned and forcefully cracked open each of the bones in the extremities before dropping them into the water. He went back to the body, made a large incision down his abdomen and quickly cut out the heart, the liver, thymus and pancreas, sliced them up and put them into the pot as well. He grabbed towels from the drawers and threw them on the floor to soak up the blood so he wouldn’t slip on the kitchen floor then wiped his hands and arms clean with a wet towel. He made a mental note to himself that he needed to go through the man’s effects to find out who he was and how he found them. He could tell the man was not law enforcement. 

As the soup simmered, Hannibal went back into the living room and began picking out as many of the pellets from the wound as he could. He noted that Will was trying very hard not to show how painful it was but the trickles of sweat down his temple, the stifled moans of pain and the expression on his face told him enough. “You’re doing well, Will. I know it hurts, just bear it for a little bit more.” Hannibal gave Will’s hand a comforting squeeze before he went back into the kitchen, took a ladle and used it to sweep the scum and fat from the surface of the bubbling soup and dumped them into the sink. He took a spoon from a drawer and took a taste of the soup. He nodded as he put it down. It was a rush job but it would have to do. He took a strainer and bowl from a cabinet, put the strainer on top of the bowl and ladled some of the hot liquid into the bowl through the strainer. He turned off the range, put the bones and herbs in the strainer back into the soup pot, put the strainer and the ladle on the range and took the bowl and the spoon into the living room.

“Will, drink this soup. You’ll feel better.” Hannibal knelt next to Will, took a spoon of the soup, blew on it to cool it and brought it to his lips only to have Will turn his head. 

“I know that you cut up that man and put him in the soup.”

Irritation and impatience made Hannibal grind his teeth. “Yes, it was necessary. It’s the only thing that’ll heal the wound.”

“I don’t want to eat any more human flesh.”

Ah, so he figured it out, thought Hannibal. “You’ll die without it. He tried to kill you, Will, and you killed him in self-defense. Letting this go to waste would let him finish you off.” 

Will kept his head turned but was tiring and weakening. 

Hannibal took a mouthful of the broth, let it cool in his mouth, turned Will’s face towards him, sealed his mouth with his lips and flooded Will’s mouth with the soup. Will reflexively swallowed before coughing. Hannibal took another mouthful and fed him another mouthful. He wanted to feed him more but Will slipped into unconsciousness. 

He went to the kitchen, picked out the herbs from the soup, mashed them into a paste, spread them on a gauze and put them over Will’s wound. He used medical tape from his medical bag to keep the gauze in place. He cleaned up Will as much as he could before carrying him to the bed. That’s all I can do, Hannibal thought as he put him down on the bed. Your body will have to do the rest. 

***

Hannibal finished butchering the hunter and put him in the freezer for later consumption and cleaned both rooms as much as he could. There was no way he could think if the whole cottage was suffused with the smell of blood going bad. He then went through the man’s clothes. Most hunters of supernatural entites were blue-collar but Hannibal could tell from the man’s clothes and weapon that he was wealthy. Everything was brand new and high quality like the shiny and unscuffed leather boots and the belt without the crinkles that come from use. The man was been carrying a new back pack. Opening the pack, he noticed that the man had an IPad, a wallet, more ammunition, various bags full of what seemed to be magical charms, a notebook, pens and a set of car keys. 

Hannibal looked through the man’s wallet, saw a thick sheaf of hundred dollar bills, and noticed with a raised eyebrow that he had an American Express Centurion Card. I need to know more about this man, he thought. He pulled the man’s skull from the freezer where it had become chilled but not frozen. 

He put the skull on a plate and lifted off the top of the already cracked open skull to reveal the brain. He took a spoon to go after the gray matter where the important information was stored and savored the bites like most people savored ice cream. After a few spoonfuls, he knew the password to the IPad and knowing that, he checked the man’s e-mails. 

As he continued eating the gray matter, he quickly skimmed through the e-mails and saw that the intruder had been corresponding with a wheeler and dealer in magic items named Bela Talbot, who had given him the charms in the backpack that had helped the hunter find them. She had sold him exclusive use of the items in exchange for certain magical items in his own personal collection and hundreds of thousands of dollars. I’ll be sure to kill you very soon, he thought, taking special note of her name, appearance and address as they came to mind. The information from both the e-mails and the gray matter confirmed his suspicions that what he was dealing with was a rich, spoiled trophy hunter who had wanted a ravenstag for the bragging rights. The one thing that he learned that didn’t anger him was that the man hunted alone and was secretive because he arrogantly believed that he could handle it by himself and didn’t want to share anything he bagged with anybody else. That meant that he didn’t have to leave the cottage immediately with Will in his current condition. I still have a little time, he thought.

Hannibal looked through the man’s other e-mails and thought about what to do next. He smiled as he formulated a plan. Bank account numbers, safety deposit boxes’ locations and other important numbers popped into his head to be filed away safely for use later as he took more bites. He took the man’s notebook and began writing the outline of his plans down.

***

Hours later, Hannibal checked the wound by carefully taking off the gauze and was delighted to see that the wound had healed completely with no scar tissue or scabbing. Not only that but all the silver shot gun pellets had been expelled and were sticking to the poultice on the gauze. Hannibal threw it into the garbage can, went to the bathroom, took a washcloth and wet it with warm water. 

As Hannibal began wiping him clean, Will blinked his eyes open and turned to see Hannibal. “Hannibal?”

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” said Hannibal.

Will sat up and looked at his side and saw that he was completely healed though he was still in ravenstag form. “There’s not even any stitches.” He touched the area gingerly, incredulous at the perfection of the cure. 

“How do you feel?”

“Tired.” Will said before looking away.

“Angry?” He knew that Will wasn’t happy about being tricked into drinking the soup.

“I should be but I'm not.” 

“My methods may be regrettable but I don’t regret the results. Any pain?” said Hannibal as he got in bed. 

Will shook his head then put it on Hannibal’s shoulder. Hannibal wrapped his arm around his shoulders and began caressing his arm to comfort him, kissing him on the temple, then the cheek then on the lips. 

He could smell a light scent of fear from Will. “Don’t be afraid.” Hannibal turned to face Will, put his hands on both sides of Will’s head and used his thumbs to massage slow, gentle circles on the small bumps on his head, knowing exactly the effect it would have on him. 

Will shivered and whimpered, “That’s unfair.” But he didn’t push Hannibal’s hands off but leaned into the touch. 

“But it feels good, doesn’t it?” Hannibal whispered in his ear before licking a stripe along his neck. He could smell Will’s underlying fear fading into arousal. 

“I shouldn’t want you. I shouldn’t want this,” said Will even as he put his hands on Hannibal‘s shoulders. His utterance was part sob and part pant.

“You’re becoming who you truly are. When I first saw you like this under the full moon, there was nothing in the world I desired more. We’re in this together,” said Hannibal, nuzzling his neck. At last, he thought.

***

Hannibal woke up and noticed that Will was not in bed. He sat up hurriedly, wondering if Will had left or if another disaster had befallen him. He relaxed when he heard that the shower was on in the bathroom. He got up and walked into the bathroom. “Will?”

He heard the water turn off and the shower curtain was pulled back. Will was standing, wet, naked and in human form. “Looks like I can finally change back to normal. Disappointed?” said Will. 

“Never,” said Hannibal, appreciating the way water accented Will’s body before stepping into the shower stall. “Let me help you clean up.”

***

Hannibal smiled as he led Will to the hunter‘s car. “We’re taking a trip to Europe. I really hope you like Italy.”

“How are we going to get there? I hope you‘re not going to tell me that we‘re getting there by magic carpet.” 

Hannibal took the snark as a sign that while Will was not happy with their current situation, at least he was getting a bit more used to it. “By private jet. I’ll work on finding you a passport. Since I‘m the one they‘re really looking for, giving you a makeover will probably be enough for you to slip through.”

“How are we going to get a private jet? And why am I the only one who needs a passport?” Will asked once they both got in. 

Hannibal’s face turned into the spitting image of the hunter who nearly killed Will. Will gasped, startled.

“I learned quite a few tricks over a thousand years. If you stay with me, I may teach you some of them.” Hannibal reverted his face back to normal, laughed then started the car.

The End

**Author's Note:**

> The face-shifting is a riff on a scene in Silence of the Lamb where Hannibal uses someone's face to escape. 
> 
> I also wanted to explain how he could live so comfortably while on the run, especially since I would think the assets in his name would be frozen. An unexplained money source is my pet peeve when it comes to TV and movies. 
> 
> I considered making the dead hunter Mason Verger but decided not to. 
> 
> In the mythos I'm creating, Ravenstags aren't spell casters in terms of casting spells on others but they become stronger in terms of their own body the older they are. That's why Hannibal can shrug off silver bullets shot by Beverly in the first story while a shotgun blast (though aided by a poisonous concoction) seriously injures Will. A Millenial ravenstag (one that is over a thousand years old) is considered particularly strong and deadly. 
> 
> Hannibal's eating of brains and learning from the eating is a riff on an urban legend about flatworms knowing how to navigate a maze after eating flatworms that had mastered the maze. It seems to be pretty much busted though. I think it's only gained currency/staying power because it's been in so many science fiction stories. 
> 
> Hannibal's supposition about Will's dogs being easily adopted turned out to be true. Just so you know. 
> 
> Bela Talbot is not Bella in Hannibal, but a very different character in Supernatural, a wheeler/dealer in magic charms and other supernatural goods. You pay in hard cold cash, she WILL deliver the goods (she's not interested in fraud or cheating customers) but has little regard about how she gets it, how it's used or why.
> 
> I don't do WIPs, mostly because I know that I'll think of something towards the end of a fic that requires me to change something near the beginning. It's pretty annoying.


End file.
